Before the civil War, the Day girls were known as the 'richest young ladies in Georgia'. Their father, Judge Joseph Day of Macon, GA was the speaker of the House of Representatives of Georgia. He married his wife, Mary Ann Hampton, rather late in life; he died soon after the war. The ravages of the Civil War left his wife and daughters much poorer and sometime late, they moved to Staunton, VA near Staunton Military Academy and now what is Mary Baldwin College.

They established a boarding house to make ends meet and it was during this period that she met and married Richard Buffon Lee.

Great grandmother Mary Ann Hampton Day entrusted all of the family's money, or what was left of it, to Grandfather Richard B. Lee, true to the custom of the time, because they thought men knew best about these things. Eventually, it was all gone, through ostentaious living and poor business acumen. By the time their children, Ronald and Mary, were old enough to work, they were the main support of the family. Joseph Day Lee, who had done exceptionally well in school, attended Richmond College at 14, continued through Law School at Columbia Univeristy, and graduated at 21, thanks to his silblings Ronald and Mary. Mary herself was able to go to Columbia Teacher's College, where Abigail Stout Howell was a student, and Mary introduced her to Joseph Day Lee. [1]